Tales of the Lost Islands
by Technow
Summary: A collection of one-, two-, and three-shots I feel inspired to write. Some will be related to Dragon Chronicles, some won't.
1. Preparing For The Race

Tale 1 Part 1: Preparing For A Race

Note: This is set between Swap Force and Giants, so the Swap Force themselves will not appear, but the Cores from Swap Force will be involved.

Hot Head skidded to a halt, shifted out of his motorcycle form and, turning around, looked proudly at the flaming skid mark he had left on the ground of the Fire island of the Lost Islands, where all of the Fire Skylanders, with the exception of Sunburn, as he was the Fire Element leader, and Blast Zone, as he was the second-in-command of the SWAP Force, lived. "Oh, yeah!" he shouted. "I'm the fastest! The slipperiest! The most awesome Skylander in EXISTENCE!" he yelled, raising his big, cumbersome arms to the sky.

He then heard the screeching of another pair of wheels at his feet. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!" Fryno yelled at him, as his emberformed motorbike vanished in a blaze of glory. "I AM THE FASTEST, NOT YOU, GRANDPA! SO I'M NEW AROUND HERE, BUT I AM ALSO WAAAAAY BETTER THAN YOU'VE EVER BEEN IN ALL TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF YOUR LIFE!" The permanently enraged rhino biker screamed at him for no apparent reason.

Hot Head went deathly still, the fires of rage burning in his eyes. "What did you just say?" he growled, deadly silent and even more menacing. A smarter Skylander would have backed off and left. However, Fryno was way too full of himself.

"I SAID I'M BETTER THAN YOU, AND GET USED TO IT, CAUSE IT'S TRUE, YA GOT THAT, YA BIG OIL SLICK?!" Fryno raged.

"Alright," Hot Head was doing everything he could to control his anger, but he would not let the insult to his pride issued by that jet-set, leather-jacket wearing punk stand. "How about a race, then?"

"LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, I WILL ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE, MC GRANPA! WHEN, AND WHERE, EH?!" Fryno shouted.

Hot Head frowned. 'MC Grandpa? Was that supposed to be an insult?' he wondered. "There's gotta be a good racetrack somewhere around here. Maybe we should ask the Tech Skylanders," he suggested.

"YEAH, LET'S GO ASK SPROCKET!" Fryno shouted. "SURELY HER PRISSY GOLDING ASS HAS GOTTA KNOWS A GOOD RACETRACK SOMEWHERE AROUND THESE PARTS!" he raged, beating his fists against the floor.

Hot Head sighed. "Sure, let's go ask Sprocket,"

The two found the female inventor in her workshop on the Tech Island of the Lost Islands. The workshop in question had been converted from an old movie theatre from the time a year and a half ago when the majority of the Skylanders had moved to the Lost Islands.

"Sure, I know an absolutely fabulous racetrack only a few kilometres away. It's free most of the time, and I go there to test a lot of my vehicular inventions, so I'm sure the owner wouldn't mind a couple of Skylanders renting it for a few hours," she smiled. "One condition," she hastily added.

Hot Head, who could barely fit into the ex-theatre, sighed. "What is it?"

Sprocket smirked. "I want in too," she smiled.

Hot Head's eyes widened, that was a lot better than he had expected. "Sure, where is the place?"

An eighty-minute flight later, the three Skylanders were standing at the top of a largely elevated grandstand hewn out of a mountain, where they looked down on an awesome racetrack spanning three islands that had been joined together for the purpose. "Welcome to the Pig Rock Raceway!" she beamed, gesturing at the track below. And it was a beauty.

The starting line was at the base of the mountain they were standing in, which, after a small straightaway lead straight into a slalom course in a small swamp, involving all kinds of intricately knotted tracks. Hot Head realised he would get a headache trying to work out how to get through there, so he allowed his eyes to continue out of the slalom course and onto a place where the track was suddenly made out of wood. The reason for the wood quickly became apparent, as the wooden track quickly led onto a bridge that spanned the gap to the next island. That island in question had the track split in two, and there seemed to be some kind of mechanism that, when activated, would block off one of the tracks. The two smaller tracks led into a massive curve that looked like it was vertical, for which a massive amount of speed would be needed to pass through safely, before going beneath itself into the depths of the Skyland. No one could tell what was down there, but the tracks, still separate, reappeared and intertwined with each other in a long, drawn-out series of loop-the-loops that bridged the gap between the second and third islands. Luckily there was also a safety net beneath it, just in case.

But the third part of the racecourse was without a doubt the most impressive, and also what gave the course its name. The tracks abruptly ended about twenty-five metres from the edge of the island, where the racers would obviously have to cross a jump and land on the track of the third island. At first glance the third island like,d unimpressive compared to the other two, it was just a massive spiral encircling a great mountain with a peak that for some reason looked like a pig head with a gaping mouth. The three Skylanders could only assume that the track went within the mountain at some point, because the track emerged from the open mouth of the pig - and dropped into a massive vertical that went straight down the mountain before curving back up like a ski jump. But most ski jumps didn't have a loop-the-loop in the middle of them. This one did.

Again, there was a net stretched beneath it in case someone didn't make the distance, because apparently the design was for the jump to carry any and all racers all the way across the two hundred or so metres across the gap between the third island and the first. There was a large, flat landing area that funnelled back into a track, went through some rather unnecessary hairpin turns before finally ending up back at the starting line.

"LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, THAT IS THE MOST AWESOME THING I HAVE EVER SEEN, YA GOT THAT YA BIG RACETRACK!" Fryno screamed at the course.

"This'll do nicely. So, should we get started?" Hot Head suggested to Sprocket, who annoyingly wagged a finger in his direction. "Uh uh uh. We should see if anyone else wants to compete," she smiled.

Back at the Isle of Light, they were surprised by how few were interested - and how unlikely the ones that were interested were.

"We're having a big race a few islands away, anyone interested?" Hot Head asked shortly. He was addressing all of the Life Skylanders, with the exception of the Swap Force, as they were still trapped on Earth at the time, and Camo who was goofing off somewhere with Sunburn. Sprocket had asked him to ask all of the Water, Life, Earth and Air Skylanders, while she got the Tech, Magic, Fire and Undead ones.

Almost every single one of the Life Elements walked away without even bothering to respond. Only Stump Smash and Shroomboom remained. "We're Life Element. As in, opposed to anything unnatural? Like racing?" Stump Smash asked in a bored tone. He then turned around and left.

"I wanna take part!" Shroomboom yelped excitedly. "It'll be great advertising for my pro-mushroom con-pizza campaign!" the monocular mushroom added, strangely excited. "You know you need a bike, or a kart, or something to compete, right?" Hot Head asked, surprised that out of all the Life elements, Shroomboom would be the one to volunteer. "Yes. I know," Shroomboom replied mysteriously, narrowing his eye and smiling. At least he thought it looked mysterious. It actually gave the impression that he was squinting. "Fine. Meet at Sprocket's workshop at ten in the morning tomorrow. Oh, and can you go and ask the Water Skylanders if any of them want to compete?" he added. Shroomboom nodded enthusiastically, making his way towards the bridge that connected the Life island of the Lost Islands to the Water Skyland, which happened to be next door. Hot Head moved in the other direction, towards the Earth island.

Sprocket had gathered the Tech and Magic Skylanders together to ask them all at once, thus saving time. "Does anyone want to take part in a car/bike race?" she asked, coming straight out with it. Voodood, Countdown, Bouncer, Ninjini, Scarlett, Star Strike, Wrecking Ball and Double Trouble were quick to decline, the others seemed to be considering it. "Will there be a prize?" Boomer asked. Sprocket shook her head, replying "Only if someone contributes one," and the troll stalked off. Sprocket scratched her head, wondering what he had to be angry about, then decided it was unimportant and turned to the Skylanders who were still there.

"Operation designated race is calculated to have a high probability of generating positive emotions designated competition, fun and victory when event designated 'this unit is victorious' occurs. I will accept your offer, biotic factor designated Sprocket," Drobot droned in his eternal monotone.

"I'd love to, but I need a vehicle," Spyro told Sprocket.

"Generating negative emotion designated fear is a pointless exertion of energy in this circumstance, fellow unit designated Skylander, this unit possesses multiple devices equipped to serve a vehicular function and also equipped for biotic factors of dragonoid anatomy. Go to geospatial location designated Drobot's workshop and laboratory to collect said abiotic device," Drobot added, looking at Spyro. Without saying anything, Spyro looked at Sprocket for a translation.

"He has a spare vehicle for you," Sprocket explained, "come by his place to pick it up," Spyro nodded, smiling. "Right,"

"Ye-ha-ha! I'm going for the gold!" Trigger Happy laughed maniacally. He continued to laugh maniacally as Dune Bug and Pop Fizz also confirmed that they would like to participate in the race.

The orange gremlin suddenly gasped and cried "I'd better go prepare my vehicle!"

"That only just occurred to him?" Pop Fizz questioned. Sprocket nodded, then began moving towards the Fire Island.

Sprocket had wisely decided to make sure Fryno didn't ask anyone if they wanted in on the race. But to make sure he didn't think he was being left out, she took him to a deserted island a little way away from the Lost Islands that Flynn had asked her to clear so that he could keep some of his vehicles there.

"Now, you have to make sure that you ask every bush, tree and rock on this island if they want to participate in the race," Sprocket had instructed him. "Got that, Fryno?"

"HELL YEAH, I GOT THAT! DO I LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT TO YOU?!" he had raged in her face.

Sprocket frowned, and wiped a bit of Fryno's saliva off her cheek. "Just ask everything on the island if they want to participate in the race," she told him abruptly. "I've gotta go ask some others if they're interested, I'll come back and pick you up in a couple of hours," she told him, moving back towards her aircraft. Fryno nodded, and turned to the nearest tree. "HEY TREE! DO YOU WANT TO RACE ME?!" he shouted at the tree.

Being a tree, it did not respond.

"OI! I'M TALKING TO YOU, TREE!" Fryno shouted, getting angry.

The tree continued to ignore him.

"OH, THAT'S IT. LEMME TELL YA SOMETHING, YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET FRYNOED!" the rhino biker raged, launching a barrage of fisticuffs at the tree.

The tree promptly fell over and caught fire, setting fire to several other trees and bushes. "HA! THAT'LL TEACH YOU, TREE!"

Fryno then realised that several other trees were catching fire. "HEY! STOP BURNING! I NEED TO ASK YOU A QUESTION!" he raged at no tree in particular. "I SAID STOP BURNING!" he raged, emberforming his motorbike and charging the burning trees.

Things proceeded in a fashion like this for about an hour, by which point Fryno had destroyed everything on the southeast half of the island. Flynn chose that moment to swoop by. "Hey down there! Great job clearing the island!" he shouted down to Fryno.

"HEY, YOU'RE THAT ANNOYING BALLOONIST GUY! I CAN'T STAND YOU! DO YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN A RACE TOMORROW?!" Fryno yelled up at him.

"A race, now that sounds interesting. When and where?" Flynn called back down to Fryno. "TOMORROW AT TEN IN THE MORNING, SPROCKET'S WORKSHOP! BE THERE OR END UP LIKE THEM!" Fryno raged at Flynn, gesturing at the charred remnants of the trees that had already been destroyed by his wrath.

"Got it. I'll see you tomorrow, and for now I'll let you get on with clearing and destroying everything on the island. You're doing great!" Flynn called down to him.

"THANKS! I REALLY CAN'T STAND YOU!" Fryno shouted back at Flynn, before realising that another tree had been set on fire. "HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I GOT TO TELL YOU TO STOP BURNING!"

**Okay, this was originally done for my friend HazardTheAssassin, who wanted me to write something completely unrelated to Dragon Chronicles. This was partly inspired by HotWheels Acceleracers, partly by Angry Birds Go, and partly by that racing episode of Johnny Test. So I thought this up, then remembered how little attention my last one-shot, Love at First Boom, got. I mean, seriously? Six reviews? So I decided to make a collection of one-, two-, and perhaps the occasional three-shots kinda like my other friend, Numbuh 94/Undead Prowess/whatever she's calling herself when you read this, 's Heroes and Chompies. And I will include Love At First Boom here too. Some will be related to Dragon Chronicles, some won't be, but to all ends and means, this particular one won't be. And seeing as Julie has become otherwise engaged, Gaiphe has gone to become a god to some rural tribe in Sonic Unleashed, I still have no idea where Riley is, and we all know the problems with Flynn, I have decided to bring in my sister to help me. Ladies, gentlemen, dragonoid creatures and other sentient species, give it up for Ala!**

**{a being that looks like a female Sunburn, but with a longer beak, a more dragon-shaped tail, scales over all of her body except the head, wrists/ankles and end of her tail, and white instead of red enters}**

**Ala?**

**"What? This is a world with all kinds of incredible beings. You really thought I would stay human after that?"**

**Well, I remained human.**

**"Please, bro, we all know that the only reason you're human here is because you thought the readers would get weirded out if the Author's Notes were being hosted by a dragon,"**

**{rolls his eyes} Sure. For my twin sister, you can be incredibly annoying with your logic sometimes.**

**"I know, and I love it. Kinda why we're fraternal twins. Peace!"**

**Hey, I say -**


	2. Love At First Boom

Love at First Boom

The wind was rushing past Flynn's face and he had his volcano hat tucked under his arm for fear of losing it. Tessa seemed to enjoy the wind rushing through her fur, but Flynn really preferred things with cockpits.

Tessa and Flynn were on Whiskers' back, flying through the far west of the Southern section of Cloudbreak. They had already been flying for about half an hour.

Tessa said that there was a rather nice cafe in a town inhabited by Dirt Sharks and Kangarats called Iron Jaw Gulch. Tessa said she had been there before, and they even had giant musical trampolines. To which Flynn had replied, "Well, how can I say no to giant musical trampolines? But do we have to take your bird? I mean, I'm sure it's a great mode of transportation for you, but I would really prefer something with propellers and a cockpit,"

Bringing us to the present moment. "You know what your problem is, Flynn? You spend so much time around machines, and technology, that you ignore your instincts. Besides, Whiskers' grandmother was a phoenix, and Whiskers is a smart bird. He'll do us fine,"

"I'll have you know that ignoring my instincts is the only reason I'm on this feathered -" At which point Whiskers turned his head and used his long neck to reach past Tessa and nuzzle Flynn with his beak. "Awwww, he likes me. Okay, I'll give this bird a try," Flynn finished, rubbing the top of Whiskers' head as they crossed the boundary between the South and East sections. The change was obvious as suddenly, greenery became amazingly sparse.

They flew for about another hour in peace. Until Flynn spotted something that was amazingly familiar moored near a ragtag place that looked like it was part town, part mine, and part junkyard.

"Hey! That's my ship!"

Sure enough, the Dread-Yacht was moored on the edge of the area. But it looked different. It's chipped, ragtag paint job had been repainted a glossy dark purple and on the crane deck, the crane had been removed and replaced with what looked to Flynn like a massive, purple laser pointer. "That was my favourite crane!" Flynn complained.

"You have a favourite crane?" Tessa had to ask.

"My favourite crane on my favourite ship in my favourite ocean. Boom!" Flynn replied, smiling.

"So, that's your ship down there?" Tessa asked, gesturing at the Dread-Yacht.

"She was stolen last week. And I want her back. Now let's go down there and tell the pirates who captured her to give her back, or feel the power of my awesomeness! Boom!"

Tessa discreetly landed Whiskers behind a pile of old train cars. It wasn't hard, they were all over the place. "I think that's two of the evil-thingy Skylanders! Zap and Jet-Vac!" Flynn whispered to Tessa. The two were peering out at a very curious sight. The two evilised Skylanders were talking to what looked like a big crab. It reminded Flynn of an alien from a cartoon Scott loved, called '10 Ben' or something like that. But that one had been orange. This one was grey.

"Be quiet! I think I can make out what they're saying!" Tessa whispered back.

"I've got a better idea," Flynn told her, pulling out a small, round device. "My Farspeaker," he told Tessa. Flynn attached the Farspeaker to a long metal pole and slowly and carefully slid it out until it was right near the conversation. Suddenly, everyone in Motleyville could hear the conversation.

". . . . no doubt that this 'eviliser' thing of yours looks impressive, and I can agree that you do bear a resemblance to the Skylanders Jet-Vac and Zap, and that ship does bear a resemblance to the Skylanders' Dread-Yacht, but it's still possible that this is some kind of hoax. I want to see a being get evilised before I believe this story of yours and throw my lot in with your group. Again," the big crab said, unaware that he could be heard from anywhere in Motleyville, due to the Farspeaker's magical properties.

"That's Baron Von Shellshock! The Skylanders kicked him out of Cloudbreak a hundred years ago, after he tried to take over the West section of Cloudbreak with a giant robot crab! What's he doing back here?" Tessa whispered to Flynn.

"I don't know. Look, here's the plan. You and Whiskers cause a distraction, fly into the sky and call them names or something, just get their attention away from the ship. Then I'll sneak behind their backs and recapture the Dread-Yacht. Once I'm in in control of her again, I'll swing round and you and your bird can land on the deck, then you get down to the turret mounted on the lower deck, shoot at Zap and Jet-Vac until they're de-evilised, then we pick them up, capture Baron Von Shellshock and get back to our trip to this cafe in Iron Jaw Gulch. Got it?"

Tessa nodded. "You're so brave, Flynn. Good luck!"

The first stage of the plan worked perfectly. Tessa and Whiskers took off into the air, and with a cry of "Baron Von Shellshock? More like Baron Von Shellstopped! And are you two Skylanders, or Sky-losers?"

Zap growled like an animal. Evilisation had a side-effect of devolving the subject's mind, unless the mind was very advanced, or the evilisation was very specialised. Zap had been reverted to the days of evolution when dragons were little more than wild beasts. However, Jet-Vac still had his sentiency about him. "Ach, does that gal hava death-wish or summat? Ya say ye wanted a demonstration, Shellshock. I'd be happy to give you one with that lass up there. SPROCKET! HIT THAT BIRD WITH THE EVILISER, AND GET IT TO BRING THAT LASSIE DOWN HERE! Then, we'll show you the true power of the Eviliser, ha ha ha,"

Flynn had forgotten to consider that there might be others aboard the ship, and, hearing that and fearing someone else might be coming from the ship, he dived off the gangplank and through a door set into the hull that had been the only way into the galley, before the techies had gotten to it and built a corridor on the inside of the ship leading from the gun deck to the galley. He crashed into a pile of pots, and rubbed his head before standing up again.

Clearly, these evilised Skylanders aren't big on cleaning, the pilot thought to himself as he surveyed the state of filth the kitchen was in.

But mum always said not to play with knifes, because someone could get hurt, Flynn reminisced as he selected the largest kitchen knife he could find from the pile, rubbed the worst of the filth off, and took a moment to sharpen. I guess it's time to find out if she was right or not.

The Mabu stepped out into the corridor and made his way to the gun deck.

Flynn cautiously peeked out from under the massive hatch that lead to the gun deck. Satisfied that everyone that he could see was occupied by Tessa and Whiskers, he quietly snuck out through the hatch and up towards the cockpit. Of course, he didn't think about the fact that the eviliser was mounted at the far end of the ship and probably had it's own set of controls. The pilot just assumed it would be controlled from the cockpit, like everything else.

Flynn punched in the start-up sequence, and the ship's engines started up, lifting the purple, up-side-down-dome-shaped ship into the air. This, of course, got the attention of Shellshock and the two evil Skylanders that were on the ground.

Flynn slammed his foot down on the accelerator and wrenched the steering wheel around, careening the ship towards Tessa. The giant laser gun, which had been aimed at Tessa and Whiskers, fired it's evil pulse off into space.

Flynn flipped the ship up-side-down in a massive barrel roll, dropping evil Sprocket off the deck, then brought it the right way up again in time for Tessa to land Whiskers on the main deck. "The gun deck is just through that big, black hatch. It's normally red, they repainted her," Flynn called out to her, and after tethering Whiskers to a safety rail, Tessa yanked the hatch open and dived through it, completely disregarding the ladder.

Tessa climbed into the turret, took a moment to work out the controls, and aimed it's twin cannons at the three below her.

She opened fire.

Evil Jet-Vac fell to the ground, the Darkness trickling out of him in a pile of smoke that evaporated in a matter of seconds. Shellshock dived out of the way to a position inside an abandoned train carriage. Evil Zap, however, jumped around like a dog, expertly dodging every single round.

Then Flynn spotted her predicament and took the rather unorthodox response of pulling the ship into a dive and flattening the water dragon.

The ship bounced off the ground, leaving a de-evilised Zap squashed rather cartoonishly into the ground, skimmed a couple of times, demolished a massive stack of train carts and settled into the ground.

Where it cracked in two across the middle.

Whiskers had the good fortune to be tethered to the back half of the ship, which was mostly upright, an advantage of the turret was that there was really no space to be sent flying, so Tessa suffered nothing worse than a few mild bruises. But Flynn reeled straight into the windscreen.

The expression on his dazed face against the glass was absolutely priceless. Tongue-drool everywhere.

Tessa ran up to the cockpit to check on Flynn. She hauled him onto his back, and tried to rouse him. "Huh? What? Oh, hey Tessa. Why is the floor on an angle? Did I crash again?"

"You were AWESOME! Like, you just KA-BLAMED straight into that evil dragon with this ship that - really needs a repair job," Flynn sat up straight at the words 'needs a repair job'. That was always ominous.

The pilot registered the massive crack in his ship - and fell over again.

"Hey, here! Can someone let me out of this amazingly well-cushioned prison?" A muffled voice came from Persephone's cabin. Tessa, after making sure that Flynn was fine, jumped down and picked the lock on the cabin door. A well-dressed cerulean blue Dirt Shark with a golden chainsaw adorning his head climbed through the door. "Oh," Tessa said, clearly disappointed. "It's you, Sharpfin,"

"Eh, what, heh, huh," Flynn muttered as he regained consciousness, sticking his head over the incline of the remnants of the upper deck. "Who's this guy?"

"Flynn, meet Admiral Sharpfin. Unofficial mayor of Motleyville, and one of the biggest crooks in Cloudbreak," Tessa told him sourly, with more than one disgusted glance at the Dirt Shark.

"I don't care what his title is, I just wanna know one thing. Can you do anything to fix my ship? She was stolen by a bunch of crooks and I just got her back, now there's a giant crack in her midriff!" Flynn exclaimed heatedly, gesturing at the gap that exposed half of the craft's innards.

"Tell ya what, as thanks for rescuing me, I'll personally have this ship towed back to your home with my own private craft, and as soon as I track down my boys, I'll get them to give this thing the biggest and best overhaul and restoration Cloudbreak's ever seen. My ship's just over by the old mines. I'll go get it and bring it round here," And Sharpfin jumped down from the Dread-Yacht onto more stable ground. And trudged off.

"We'd better find those two Skylanders who we de-evilised. You find the dragon, I'll get the bird-dude," Flynn suggested.

An hour later, Sharpfin and some of his 'boys' who he had found hiding around Motleyville had tied chains between the two halves of the Dread-Yacht, carefully positioned some small Skylands underneath them to keep them in the air, for it was a known fact that while it was perfectly possible for a Skyland to move forwards, backwards, left or right, no Skyland will ever move up or down, no matter how much weight is placed upon it, and tied them to Sharpfin's sleek blue-and-gold boat, which Flynn described as 'totally awesome'.

However, Flynn was back in the cockpit of the Dread-Yacht, claiming that 'no amount of awesomeness could tear me apart from reuniting with my beloved ship'. Tessa had pulled some cushions from Persephone's cabin, and was sitting on them near Flynn. Zap and Jet-Vac were unconscious in Persephone's cabin. Somehow, everyone had forgotten about Sprocket.

"Flynn, you are an amazing hero," Tessa smiled, showing some of her canine, fox-like teeth.

"Well, I wouldn't describe myself as a hero. Sure, I'm pretty amazing, but I'm no hero. Boom!" Flynn replied, smiling bashfully.

"Are you kidding? You're so smart, the way you made that plan for just the two of us - and Whiskers, of course - to defeat all of the bad guys in Motleyville, and you're so brave, how you ate that chocolate stuff without having a clue what it was, and the courage you showed when you didn't want to fly on Whiskers, but did so anyway! You probably already have a girlfriend. I'm just sad that we missed our date in Iron Jaw Gulch," Tessa finished gloomily, and her ears and tail drooped sadly.

"Actually, no, I don't, and who cares about some single date when so many more are right around the corner? I've been waiting for the right gal -" And, seeing Tessa's ears and tail lift up again, he finished "- and I think I've just found her,"

And there, on the deck of the ruined Dread-Yacht, the new couple shared their first kiss.

Half an hour and one of the best kisses of Flynn's life later . . . .

"Yeah, this is taking too long," Flynn assessed. "Let's get on that bird of yours and get back to Woodburrow. Sharpfin and co. can catch us up,"

**Okay, I know I already posted this previously, as a one-shot, but I realised that no one was paying a lick of attention to it. So I decided, what the heck? Let's upload this thing to TOTLI. Hey, I just realised that if you say that out loud, it sounds like 'totally'.**

**"Really? I worked that out ages ago. You just weren't interested in acronyms for anything other than Dragon Chronicles,"**

**Thank you, Ala. Anyhoo, hopefully we can continue making this series of one-shots TOTLI awesome! Up top!**

**"I can't reach. I'm quadruped here, remember?"**

**Sorry, kinda used to being able to give you high-fives.**

**"Just remembered. Can anyone who reads this please take a vote on whether or not I should appear in the actual Dragon Chronicles storyline, rather than just Author's Notes, in the reviews? Please? For me?"**

**"Aww, how can you say no to that face? Anyhoo, peace! Remember to vote!"**


	3. Stop SOPA!

Tale 3: Stop SOPA!

Five Skylanders crouched beneath a ridge of rock, only their eyes and the tops of their heads peeking over.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Smolderdash whispered to Punk Shock. The two female Skylanders were quite close friends, despite their opposite elements. "Don't look at me, Dash. Ask Mr. I'm in charge because I was a Skylander for the longest period of time," Punk Shock whispered back, gesturing to Prism Break.

"Well, ah have been a Skylandah foh the longest peh-riod of ta-hm," Prism Break responded in his trademark Colonial American accent.

"Technically, I, have been a Skylander for longer than you," Boom Jet pointed out.

"You were frozen for a hundred years. That doesn't count," Dune Bug, the last of the five Skylanders, pointed out.

"But I was a Cloudbreak Skylander. Was Prism Break?" Boom Jet asked.

"Actu'lly, yeah, ah will be. Eon told meh last week that meh and Terrafin hav' dun ben chosen teh be theh Earth Cloudbreak Skylandahs this yeah,"

"Fine, you can be leader," Boom Jet grumbled.

"Yeh see that down thereh?" Prism Break asked, gesturing with his head to a pirate ship moored about fifty metres below them. The other four nodded, Boom Jet still muttering to himself. "Thah's the S.S. SOPA, theh flagship of the Lamar fleet,"

"The most notorious gang of pirates in the Northeast area of Skylands," Punk Shock shuddered at the memory.

Flashback; Punk Shock was a little girl, clutching her mother's tail tight as they ran through the corridors of their palace, looking for her father, the King. The two finally found him, holding his sword and standing in the balcony of his throne room, the one that overlooked the entire city. "Aminlapl! What's happening?" Punk Shock's mother called out to him, reaching out in instinctive security.

King Aminlapl instantly dropped his sword and embraced his family. "Pirates," he explained, letting go. "The Lamar fleet," he added, reclaiming his sword. Punk Shock's mother gasped in shock. Little Punk Shock frowned, and asked "Whassa Quetzal Flea?"

"Don't worry. I'll be right back," the King smiled, kissing both of them on the cheek, before running back onto the balcony, shouting "CHAAAAAARGE!" and jumping into the water below. Punk Shock and her mother could see him swimming towards the pirate ships circling their partially submerged city.

Punk Shock's people had decided to build their city on a rock shelf that was about ten metres below the surface of the water on their island. This resulted in the lower levels of their city being underwater, but the higher ones being above water. This was making a surprisingly easy target for pirate assaults.

Punk Shock waited, and waited, and waited. But her father never came back.

"I am finally going to get revenge for my father's demise," Punk Shock vowed to herself. "Sounds good, Punk, but just don't go all revenge-crazy, like people do in those Earth movies, okay?" Smolderdash asked her best friend.

"Okay, Dash, I'll be careful," Punk Shock agreed, smiling despite herself.

X

Meanwhile, down on the deck of the S.S. SOPA, a slim elf strutted along the deck. A Seadog approached him, growling. "Arr, Cap'n Smith, ready to set sail?"

"I've told you before, Blowhole, call me Captain Lamar. Smith's just so generic. Could be anyone! And for heaven's sake, man, put some pants on! It is not enough to wear nothing but a leather jerkin and your own fur," the captain of the ship replied to his first mate.

"Arr, but I don't have any pants, cap'n!"

"Then go steal a pair from someone who does. And for heaven's sake, stop talking like some deranged pirate zombie from Pirates of the Carribean," Captain Lamar ordered.

Blowhole saluted, and walked away. "Pirates," Lamar muttered to himself. "So uncivilised," He drew his slim, razor-sharp rapier and admired the way that it gleamed in the sunlight. Every single part of it had been taken from it's original owner's cold, dead body. Literally. The hilt was the skull of a young dragonet, whose head he had personally cut off, emptied out, skinned and built it. The handle was forged from the horns of said dragonet's mother, who had totally overreacted to him killing one of her hatchlings. Her teeth made a sort of lion-like mane around her baby's skull. The grip on the handle was made of bound kitsune hair, glued in place with the same kitsune's blood, and the blade was a long, polished piece of bone. Pirate bone, taken from one of his own crew. There was a reason 'Metal Hooklimb' was the nickname of one of his lieutenants. They needed a lesson to teach them respect, and fear.

X

"Anyone reckon we shoulda called for backup?" Prism Break asked. Punk Shock shook her head. "I think we can handle a few pirates," she smiled, confident. "Right, Dash?" she asked her best friend. Smolderdash, however, was staring into the distance in shock. Far off, on the horizon, an entire fleet was just barely visible.

Prism Break cursed. "Weh gotta take out thah flagship before the rest of the fleet arrives,"

"Why don't you cut a hole in the bottom of the -" Dune Bug started, before being interrupted by Boom Jet pointing out, "It's called the hull of a ship,"

"The HULL of the ship," Dune Bug pointedly corrected himself, before continuing, "with your crystal lasers?"

"Don't bother. I've seen this before, when those pirates attacked my home city. That hull may look like plain wood, but see the black stuff where that plank has come loose?" Punk Shock pointed to a patch of blackness where one of the upper planks on the hull was hanging loose. "That's obsidian. It's a type of crystal with a certain natural property that prevents any sort of laser from penetrating, or even making a dent," she explained.

"Dun talk to meh about dents," Prism Break grumbled. "Get enough of those with Crusher and Granius cracking rocks all over the place. Curse theh lunatic thaht invented shrapnel,"

Dune Bug thought it necessary to mention, "No one invented shrapnel, it's a law of phy -"

"Ah dun't care!" Prism Break exploded at him. The other four recoiled in shock. "Anyhoo, we gonna attack or what?" the rock golem questioned.

"There is the question of how we get down there. Only me and Dune Bug can fly," Boom Jet pointed out, absent-mindedly twirling his jet engine's propeller. Everyone else looked at either him, or it.

A couple of minutes later . . . . . .

"Me and my big mouth," Boom Jet groaned. Prism Break was behind him on the jet, clinging on for dear life, and Punk Shock and Smolderdash were in a symmetrical position holding onto one of Prism Break's arms with one arm and readying their weapons with the other. Dune Bug was the only one not somehow poised on the jet - but that was only because he was underneath, helping it stay in the air.

X

Obviously someone was going to notice five Skylanders making one heck of a racket on an aeroplane turbine and heading straight towards the pirate ship.

"Avast, matey! Skylanders off the port bow!" a Seadog yelled out, and Captain Lamar wheeled around in shock, exclaiming, "What? But there's an insurmountable cliff that way! And what is that horrendous cacophony?"

"Look up, sir!"

Captain Lamar heeded the advice, and looked further up the cliff. "Oh my Ancients!"

"Arr, cap'n, what should we do?" Some nameless, faceless pirate questioned.

"Man the cannons! Get me a cup of tea! And for god's sake, man, stop saying 'Arr'!" Lamar bellowed. The pirate instantly complied, rushing down to the galley to get some tea leaves.

X

"I don't think they've even noticed us," Punk Shock suggested optimistically. Then the five Skylanders simultaneously blinked as a volley of cannonballs soared through the air towards them. "Me and my big mouth," she sighed as Smolderdash leapt into action.

Jumping from the jet into mid-air, her pitch-black body blazed with bright light as she went eclipse mode, levitating in mid-air as she flicked her whip like a circus ringleader. Half-melted cannonballs went in every direction, most dropping from mid-air due to collisions with Smolderdash's fireballs. Others were caught by her whip, and, with clever flicks of the eclipse warrior's wrist, set ablaze and thrown back towards the pirate ship. The blazing balls of molten metal punched holes in the wooden hull of the ship, revealing the shimmering black surface of the obsidian beneath.

Unnoticed behind her, the others were having a difficult time balancing die to her absence,

Finally, Smolderdash tired of the sport and launched a massive solar flare towards the final volley, sending them flying in every direction. The comet warrior folded her eyes and smirked as her eclipse power expired. Using the last of the power to continue her levitation, she was surprised to see that Boom Jet and the others were about to cream her. Punk Shock grabbed her as they whistled past, plummeted the remaining metres towards the shop and crashed.

Boom Jet sighed as he realised that his jet engine would be in dire need of repairs sooner or later.

Prism Break blinked as he noticed that he and the other Skylanders were being encircled by the pirates. Standing on the higher vantage point provided by the stern of the ship, was the pirate captain. "Skylanders, I presume. I can hardly have you messing up my plans, so, er, what's the word you uncivilised brutes use?"

"Attack, cap'n?" another pirate suggested. "Yes. That. Attack, or whatever,"

Lamar blinked as, one by one, all of his pirates were thrown off the ship. His only comment was, "I need better pirates," he voiced aloud, emotionless.

Prism Break and Boom Jet, who, due to his jet engine's damaged flight capabilities, has been carrying it and using it's missile launching ability as a bazooka of sorts, advanced from the left. Punk Shock and Smolderdash came from the right, and Dune Bug flew up right in front of him.

Absurdly, out of nowhere, a little pirate appeared, holding a cup of tea and a saucer. "Your tea, sir," he bowed, presenting the steaming hot cup to the pirate captain. Lamar lifted the cup to his lips and took a long sip. "Good tea. I'm promoting you to temporary first mate, since my normal one has been, eh, indisposed,"

The pirate noticed the Skylanders, blinked, and, backing away and stuttering, declined, "I-I-I think I'll have to decline, sir, I have developed a rather sudden interest in candle-making," and with those last words, he pin-dropped over the ship. Less pain that way.

"I suppose you're going to take me in, then? A Traptanium cell or something?" Lamar questioned the Skylanders, oddly calm. Punk Shock shrugged. "Something like that,"

"Ah must confess, ah think ya seem oddly calm at your defeat," Prism Break frowned, confused. At this, Lamar smiled. "Ah, but there is no setback that cannot be used to one's advantage. Yes, this is a setback. And I am certain that I shall find a way to turn it to my advantage," he chuckled, as if the positions were reversed and he were winning. He showed no more emotion as the Skylanders scuttled his pirate ship, cuffed him and turned him over to the Trap Masters, who were unnerved by his silence as they locked him up in Cloudcracker Prison.

For while all of the other inmates slumbered in their cells, and he was faintly smirking in solitude, he repeated, "No setback that cannot be used to one's advantage," and, drawing a hidden blade concealed within the rubber of the sole of his boot, began chipping away at the walls of his prison. And no one suspected what was concealed within the sole of his other boot.

The silent, perpetual, tick, tick, ticking of a time-bomb.

A/N

A/N

**Okay, so I heard the news about SOPA making a return. I'm gonna let Fryno here tell everyone how I feel.**

**"THIS IS THE WORST IDEA EVER! I AM GOING TO TAKE THIS STUPID SOAP THING, BURN IT TO THE GROUND, POUND IT INTO OBLIVION, AND RUN OVER ANYONE THAT EVER SET FOOT IN IT!"**

**"Really, brother? That's how you feel? I thought you wouldn't be so violent. Seems kinda wrong,"**

**No, Ala, that's how Fryno interpreted my feelings towards SOPA. Anyway, I figured, what better way to protest an act about online piracy than writing a one-shot about piracy?**

**"Yes, I must admit that it was a good plan,"**

**Thank you, Ala. And if you didn't know, Lamar S. Smith was the name of the guy who originally introduced SOPA. I may or may not involve him in my other fictions. I probably will at some point or other. Anyway, STOP SOPA! Peace!**


	4. Total Drama MPD

Tale 2 Part 1: Total Drama MPD

Note: This one is related to Dragon Chronicles, and set between Ch. 44 and Ch. 45.

Tails frowned in surprise, raising an indigo-scaled brow. "You have Multiple Personality Disorder?"

Tails had decided that it would be a good idea to try and get to know some of the Skylanders that were present. He was currently chatting to Whirlwind, Polarus and Pop Thorn, the latter of which was cuddling up to him like a lost puppy. If there was one thing everyone knew about Pop Thorn, it was that nobody disliked him. He was just too cute for that. Except Hex, but that was only because he was so well liked.

"Yep," Polarus confirmed shortly. Ever since that time in Drobot's Arkeyan Copter when Stormee almost killed him, he hadn't been too well disposed towards the alternate personality.

"Wait, isn't that only caused by childhood trauma?" Tails remembered, wondering.

"Our parents abandoned us at birth, and we were endlessly bullied for the first twelve years of our lives. Trauma enough for you?" Whirlwind snarled, losing her head and threateningly pointing her horn at Tails.

Tails held up his forepaws defensively. "Okay, okay, didn't know. Sorry. So, how many alternates do you have?" Tails questioned, seeking to somewhat change the subject.

Whirlwind dragon-shrugged. "Only one that we know of, Stormee. She's a lot like me, but she has a temper on a hair-trigger. So much as a fly-wing brushes against her and she's perfectly disposed to annihilate everything in the whole sector. There could be others, but if there are, I don't know about them," she explained.

"Stormee? Funny coincidence, in the game the Whirlwind character's prototype name was Stormee. Go figure," Tails commented, dragon-shrugging.

Whirlwind frowned at the mention of the video game Tails constantly made references to. "Tell us more about this game," she requested.

"Sure," Tails agreed, settling his hindquarters down on a patch of grass like a cat. "There's actually three games so far, Spyro's Adventure, Giants and Swap Force. And there's a fourth one on the horizon, called Trap Team. The basics of each game was Kaos has some kind of plot, and it's the job of the player, using one or more of the Skylanders, to thwart it. First game, he destroys the Core of Light and you go find one of the parts of it every level, second is a road trip chasing after him in the Dread-Yacht to prevent him from taking control of the Arkeyan Empire, third he tried and failed to evilise the Cloudbreak Volcano. Five times," Tails explained.

Polarus frowned. "Wait. That bit about destroying the Core of Light? That happened three and a half years ago,"

"Same with the bit about Arkeyans. That was two and a quarter years ago," Whirlwind realised.

"So, what about the 'evilising the Cloudbreak Volcano' thing?" Pop Thorn questioned.

Tails thought for a second. "Wait. My existence here in Skylands mucked up the game's timeline. If I had never come to Skylands,"

"Then everything inconsistent with the game plotline never would have happened, and things would have played out exactly how they did in the game. Wow," Polarus gasped.

"So? Nothing we can do about it now. And I kinda like the way things played out," Whirlwind smiled, flirtatiously rubbing her wing against Tails' body.

Tails tried not to smile at this turn of events, but eventually couldn't help a small grin breaking out across his muzzle. "I'm in a relationship," Then another thought crossed his mind, and he added, "So are you!"

"So? What's the TV like on Earth? Did they release the finale of the new season of Total Drama yet?" Polarus asked eagerly.

"He loves that show," Whirlwind whispered to Tails.

"Which new season? All Stars or Pahkitew Island?" Tails asked.

"All Stars. What's Pahkitew Island?" Polarus confirmed and questioned.

"The sixth season. It hasn't been released yet. Yeah, the finale to All Stars is available, and it was awesome! They -" Tails geeked out.

"NO!" Polarus shouted, interrupting the cerulean/indigo dragon. "No spoilers! I've watched every episode except the season five finale. You will NOT ruin it for me!"

"Any idea what they're talking about?" Whirlwind whispered to Pop Thorn, who shook his head.

Tails reared back in surprise at the hybrid's sudden outburst. "Relax, dude, I've got it on YouTube on my IPad if you wanna watch it,"

Polarus gasped. "Oh, YEAH! We need the big-screen for a momentous occasion like this!"

Tails dragon-shrugged. "Sure. Where is it?"

"Tech section of Lost Islands. Let's go!"

Half an hour later . . . . .

Tails had worked out a method of projecting his iPad's screen onto the big-screen in the Lost Islands' theatre. He had the entire series loaded, yet the theatre was far from packed. Trigger Happy was there to laugh at the comedic challenges, Hex was there to enjoy the sadistic nature of Chris, Fright Rider was there to keep her company, Whirlwind had showed up at Polarus' insistence, same with Loni and Tails, and a few others had just showed up because they had nothing better to do.

Grim Creeper was sitting behind Roller Brawl. Ignitor was sitting to her left, and Zook to her right. So he was stuck with behind, but he thought he had something to make it work for him.

The ghoul leant his scythe against Roller Brawl's chair, and rested his spectral feet on the back of her chair, intentionally cradling her helmeted head. "Hey," he said to the female vampire.

"Take your feet off my chair and shut your trap. I'm trying to watch this," Roller Brawl hissed at him. Grim Creeper hastily withdrew his legs, and moved his scythe.

The episodes started. Tails had created a 'highlight reel' of sorts of the first twelve episodes, so that anyone who hadn't seen them knew what had happened. Whirlwind, watched, fearful, as Mike, a dark-skinned contestant on the show who, just like her, had Multiple Personality Disorder, dropped a rock on his own head in an attempt to cure the problems he was having accessing his four alternates, Chester, Svetlana, Vito and Manitoba Swift, and thus accidentally put Mal, a fifth alter that was pure evil, in control permanently. And then the evil alternate personality managed to fool everyone into believing that he was Mike, and nothing had happened. She continued to be fearful as the mutated Ezekiel kidnapped Chris, the host of the show, on the one hundredth anniversary episode from the celebratory party, and the remaining contestants risked their lives to rescue him. As she saw Mal returning to the hole Cameron, another contestant and one of Mike's best friends, had been trapped in, with a massive boulder intended to crush him to death, only to find him gone, she breathed a relieved sigh. Though Cameron's fate later in the episode, in a full body cast and a wheelchair, and for some incomprehensible reason a giant plastic bubble, was little better. The hybrid applauded Alejandro's attempts to warn the other contestants about Mal, but sadly no one believed him due to his past acts of evil. She nearly wept when Zoey, Mike's girlfriend, risked her life through piranha to test if it was really Mike or Mal, and Mal only barely saved her for no other reason than it would be suspicious if he let her die. Whirlwind gritted her teeth in anger as Mal persuaded Scott that it was Gwen's fault that Courtney, a previous contestant and Scott's kinda-sorta-girlfriend, had been eliminated in the previous episode, but smirked self-satisfiedly as Zoey finally discovered the truth about Mal. And finally, watched in growing anger as Mal buried Gwen in the rubble of Chris' old cottage, and tried to feed Scott to his greatest fear, a mutant shark named Fang, before using him as one of Chris' favourite things, 'an injured competitor', and cooed at the romance of Zoey remembering her promise earlier in the season to take either Mike or Cameron to the finale with her, despite the fact that Mike was now Mal. She still hoped there would be a way to save Mike's life. Then, the thirteenth episode, The Final Wreck-ening, finally began.

And, somewhere in the hidden depths of the unicorn dragon's mind, something malign had also been watching the highlight reel. Specifically, the parts involving Mal, The Malevolent One.

The bubbles containing eight of the former competitors floated away into the sun, and the two finalists and their chosen four helpers went to the last Total Drama challenge. The Moats of Doom. Mal tried to use Heather as a raft to cross the pool of toxic waste, Cameron, Zoey and Gwen crossed the moat in Cameron's plastic bubble, Mal pole-vaulted across, Alejandro and Heather crossed in a kayak, Zoey climbed over the lava, leaving Cameron and Gwen behind by accident, Mal used a supercharged pogo stick to cross, launching him into the river water of the third moat, Mike and his alternates hit the reset button, destroying Mal and putting Mike back in his place, Mike and Zoey reconciled, Chris got bored and declared that anyone could win the million, Chef shot him out of the sky with a meatball bazooka, Mike won the million and a pretty fancy sword, Cameron realised that the challenge had been made with a fracking drill, the entire island sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and Chris got a phone call telling him that an immediate new season had gotten the green light. At that last part, Polarus let out a massive whoop of excitement.

All of the Skylanders who had been present filed out of the movie theatre, most of them somewhat disappointed. Polarus, on the other hand, was doing a rather comical jig, chanting, "Total Drama Pahkitew! Total Drama Pahkitew! Total Drama Pahkitew! PAAAA-hkitew Island!"

"You really like Total Drama, don't you?" Tails asked, smiling despite himself, as Whirlwind sweatdropped at her brother's antics. Loni stood by her, reassuring the hybrid that she wasn't alone in this.

"Yeah! It's awesome! Though there are some people that never really got much of a chance on the show. I mean, Eva, Katie and Sadie only ever got one season out of the original cast. Not to mention about half of the ROTI cast," Polarus chatted to Tails. "True, personally, I would have loved to see more of Dawn. Heh, there's still four more seasons to go that they could be involved in," the indigo dragon responded, and seeing Polarus' questioning look, he elaborated, "The producers of Total Drama want at least ten seasons of it,"

"Awesome!" Polarus shouted as Whirlwind continued to sweatdrop.

X

Whirlwind blinked at the new transportation system Tails had developed to transport Skylanders from the Isle of Light and back again. "Are you sure this is safe?" she asked, uncertain at the giant superpowered tunnel of air. "It's faster than flying or waiting for Flynn," he replied evasively. "But is it safe?" Loni asked expectantly. Tails was looking anywhere other than his girlfriend, before a green light suddenly popped up on a dashboard near the air tunnel. "It's ready, see you on the other side!" he did his best to smile, before jumping into the tunnel.

"WHOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!" Tails shrieked as he was rapidly pushed through a series of air accelerators from Disney Infinity. Loni and Whirlwind watched, concerned, as he was sucked out of view. Polarus just looked excited. "Me next, me next!" And the second the light turned green, he catapulted himself into the wind tunnel and whooshed away.

Tails' voice echoed from an intercom in the control panel. "It's safe, don't worry. But only go one at a - oof!" he gasped, getting cut off as Polarus thunked into him. "Time," he finished lamely.

Whirlwind shrugged and followed her brother through the tunnel. It was quite impressive, as she was forces through a series of glowing, pulsating blue air expellers with the familiar IN logo of Infinity stamped on them. "I wonder what would happen if one or two of these, just, went missing? And right while someone who can't fly was passing through them," she thought to herself, feeling an inexplicable buzz of pleasure at the thought?, before catching herself and wondering, "Why the heck did I just think that?"

A/N

A/N

Finally! I've been working on this for the past two months! About time I got it finished. I guess a four-hour plane flight with no in-flight entertainment (Curse you, outdated Quantas planes!) was exactly what it needed. So, as I think everyone can guess, based on what's happening here, this was inspired by Mike/Mal from Total Drama Revenge of the Island and All Stars, and what better way to set it off then an All Stars marathon?

'I can think of some terrible sitcom Halloween specials,'

Hey! The Jessie Halloween Special was the best episode of the entire show! Oh, er, I just said that to the world, didn't I? Oops. Wait, Gaiphe? Why are you here? And where's Ala?

'Did you really forget already? Not like she's in hospital or anything,'

I thought we agreed that no one was to remind me of that. Now, before anything else bad happens in this A/N, peace. And wish Ala good luck in intensive care! Please!


	5. What Happens When the Cameras Aren't On?

Tale 4, Part 1; What Happens When The Cameras Aren't Rolling?

The sound of crickets awkwardly chirping filled the air in the Shamar editing studios. Julie sighed. "Man, I'm bored,"

'When are you going to get out of your funk, Tech?' Gaiphe telepathically asked the human writer. Technow was absent-mindedly twirling around and around on the library desk's swivel chair. "Heck if I know, my feathered friend. Probably whenever this little monster gets off me," he raised his eyebrows, and indicated an odd creature that was lying asleep on his chest that looked vaguely like a cat, but with hedgehog spines and cow horns.

Gearbolt moved forwards for a closer look. "Fascinating. Your writer's block is so solid, it has taken on a physical form of its own,"

"But why is it a horny cat-hog creature?" Julie questioned, following Gearbolt's lead and moving forwards. Gaiphe, evidently deciding she couldn't be bothered, lazily stretched her wings before turning away on her perch hanging from the ceiling.

"I believe I've been reading too much of El Goonish Shive," Technow explained. "El what?" Julie questioned. Ignoring the question, Technow looked around. "Hey, where's Ala?" he questioned out loud.

"Down here!" the female phoenix dragon called, from what appeared to be beside a bookcase. "Down where?" Julie questioned, looking around.

Gearbolt examined the bookcase. "According to my calculations," and, whacking the mahogany shelves with his tail, the bookcase swung open like a door, revealing a doorway and a form of slide. "This shelf is fake," he finished, smug.

"Hey!" Technow complained, standing up. Writer's Block mewed and scampered off to the corner of the room. "That's polished mahogany! Do you know how much I paid for that?"

"Barely a cent?" Julie replied. Gaiphe continued, 'Yup. You got this place for free from Professor Pickle,'

Technow looked abashed, but continued anyway. "Well, I still don't want to see it damaged!"

"Can someone help me get up from here?" Ala called.

"I'm-a coming!" Julie growled, before donning a pair of sunglasses from nowhere, splaying her paws and jumping onto the slide. At which point she lost her balance and awkwardly slid down on her belly.

"My hypothesis states that it will be necessary to construct a method of returning up the slide once having gone down it," Gearbolt concluded, before Gaiphe tired of his techno-babble and knocked him down the slide. Gearbolt grasped her claw, and they both careened down together, yet as far apart as possible.

Technow sighed and facepalmed, muttered, "It had to be me," before grasping a snowboard from nowhere, strapping it to his boots and boarded down the slide in far greater style than everyone else before him.

X

"Whoa," Julie breathed. "What is this place, bro?" Ala asked. Technow was stunned.

They were staring at the interior of a large warehouse, full of all kinds of technical marvels. Technow gasped. "This was the original place I planned to broadcast the Author's Notes in. Then Chip ruined it forever. Anyway, I thought this place was destroyed. Who'd have thought it was still down here?"

"And all this stuff is?" Ala questioned. Technow frowned. "I'm pretty sure this is all the scrapped stuff from my stories. Look, there's all the Power Rangers rip-offs I created for Chase Aiadon," he smiled, gesturing to a bunch of vehicles. Gaiphe frowned. 'Is that train themed after a snake?'

"It's a dragon. Duh," the writer pointed out. "It looks like a snake," Gearbolt added.

A vein pulsed in Technow's neck. "You try making a train themed after a dragon," he snapped, testy. "Hey, there's a lot of stuff from that old fiction here," he noticed, looking around. "What's that big ship?" Julie questioned.

"That, my dear friend, is the Nautilaer. Basically, at the start of my Swap Force adaption, the Dread-Yacht got captured by Linagarnix, so Chase built the Nautilaer, a hodgepodge amalgamation of a wide variety of unrelated objects such a a castle, a jumbo jet, an aircraft carrier, a-to-scale replica of the Nautilus from Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and one hell of a lot of antigravity pulsars,"

The Nautilaer was in it's own right, pretty amazing. As Gearbolt walked through it, he couldn't help noticing the amazing details of the amalgamation. It had a large hub cockpit at the front with a large visor that made up most of the front and top, with several cockpits and dashboards. Progressing through, there was a large luxury area shaped like the inside of a jumbo jet, with all kinds of recliners, games, televisions and other things. There was even a large, ornate marble fireplace.

To either side of that area was two large castle wings, comprised internally of corridors with dozens of rooms along them. They really pulled off the entire medieval look, but, peeking into some of the cabins, they could not have been more varied. "Technow, why did you wire one of these rooms with enough explosives to pose a legitimate threat to multiple small countries?" Gearbolt had questioned. "I believe that was Boomer's room," the writer had responded.

Eventually, both corridors, one on each side, and the main room, lead into a large aircraft hangar/garage area that had been split in half horizontally. Multiple staircases, including one in the lounge, lead up to a galley area in the top half. There was a kitchen, an extremely well-stocked pantry and a small cabin at the back.

Above the lounge area were more cabins, luckily not sporting the castle motif, because that was beginning to really get tiresome, and a laboratory room constructed from a really large boiler. There was an odd apparatus inside it, a large machine with two twin sets of wires that were both connected to oddly shaped headbands.

"I don't want to know," Gearbolt decided, hastily backing out of the room, and leaving the hodgepodge ship.

X

"What's all this?" Julie questioned as she observed a large row of vehicles all lined up in rows. Ala followed her over, pausing at a massive monstrosity that looked like a World War 2 tank, except massive, and heavily armoured and armed. The plates of metal covering the caterpillar treads of the tank were both painted with a large white number 2.

Moving over, Technow couldn't help but smile in memory. "Ah, my old friend. The Number Twenty-Two. I remember writing this thing. The amount of walls I smashed with it, the castles I used it to break into, oh those were good times," His eyes suddenly lit up with an idea, and he pulled himself up, over the treads and into the camouflaged behemoth's cockpit. Julie and Ala watched in shock as the colossus ground to life, it's engine spluttering as fuel coursed through the old valves and the gyros span to life.

"I always wanted to drive this thing!" Technow shrieked boyishly, as the massive turret on top revved to life and repeatedly span in circles. Julie yipped in excitement. "You got any for me?"

Gaiphe sighed from where she circled high near the roof of the subterranean warehouse. "A semi-crazed kitsune who already has uncontrollable ice powers, with a tank. This is going to end well,"

"I am not semi-crazed! And I can control my ice powers! Most of the time! Do I look like Elsa from Frozen to you?" Julie hollered up at her, having inexplicably heard her.

"How did you hear that? It should be impossible!" Gaiphe retorted, diving and perching on the barrel atop the Number Twenty-Two.

"This is outside of continuum. Anything's possible!" Julie replied, smug. Then a frown crossed her petite, vulpine face. "This is outside of continuum, right, Tails?"

"Will Gaiphe still be perched on that barrel in ten seconds?" Technow retorted, before twisting a dial and causing the Number Twenty-Two's barrel to rapidly spin in circles. Gaiphe, unable to keep her balance, tottered off, before extending her wings and carefully landing on stable ground.

"Ooh, does that mean you can hook me up with a date with Camo?" Julie asked, excited. "Er, A, he's a character, not a living being, B, he has a girlfriend," Technow pointed out. Julie lay down, pouted and made her cutest fox face. The prospective author sighed. "And C; I can never say no when you make that face. Fine, where do you want the date to be?"

X

"So, is the anything else we might find interesting lying around here?" Julie asked Technow as she padded along the floor. Technow noted, interested, that flakes of frost appeared everywhere her paws touched the ground. That usually only happened when she was really excited. Gaiphe coasted overhead. "Hey, what's Gearbolt and Ala doing up there?" she asked, confused, spotting Gearbolt and Ala tinkering with a machine of some kind. Of rather, Gearbolt was tinkering, Ala was watching.

There was a bright flash and a small boom. Hearing this, the trio quickly moved towards the location of the explosion.

Technow was stunned to find the sight that awaited them. Ala and Gearbolt were lying blackened on the floor, but there were some rather notable differences. Gearbolt's horns were shorter and straighter, and his body and tail were more slender. His claws, curved before, were now hooked, and there were all sorts of feminine draconic distinctions that had not been there before.

With Ala, it was the opposite. Her feathered wings had become wider, less sleek, more toned. All over her body, her muscles had become more defined, her tail seemed a bit shorter, and her beak, long and slender, had become shorter, like Sunburn's.

Technow walked over to the machine they were nearby, for some reason holding his breath. Moving away again, he breathed for a few seconds, before asking, "Gearbolt, why the hell did you blow up the coded mutagen capsule on the special animogenetiser designed to change people's genders?"

"Oh, is that what it was?" Gearbolt weakly asked, in a voice much higher-pitched than normal.

"Okay, Gaiphe, Julie, be careful where you breathe, unless you want to be male," Technow instructed. "Why would you even create something like that?" Gaiphe asked, annoyed.

"In my old fiction, there was a character named Scott who wanted to change genders and be a girl because of another character, named Feng, 's obsession with him. Don't know why he was complaining, but anyway. So he specially programmed this animogenetiser to change the gender of whoever used it. And an animogenetiser was a device that, according to programming, could transform anything into anything at all, as long as it was alive. And now that Gearbolt's blown it up, the trans-gender mutagen is currently in the air around us," Technow explained, before taking a couple of deep breaths to refill his lungs. Big mistake.

Collapsing to the floor, he moaned in some kind of emotion somewhere between pain and pleasure as, with the phoenix and alpine kitsune watching, his posterior swelled to a decent size and thick, humanly attractive breasts grew out of his chest. His arms slimmed down and thighs widened as his/her hair follicles went into overdrive, and his/her hair grew down to his/her waist. They couldn't see through his pants, but the other changes, and the way his moans had been steadily growing higher- and higher-pitched, it was fairly obvious to assume that the change was complete and their writer was now a rather attractive (in human terms, anyway) teenaged girl wearing rather ill-fitting boy's clothes.

"Why would you even get something like that involved in the plot of a story anyway?" Gaiphe asked, raising a feathered brow.

"I told you, transformation-based fiction is a guilty pleasure of mine," Technow told her. "But hey, that reminds me. There's something I've always wanted to try,"

She walked, surprisingly comfortable on her petite, feminine feet, over to one of the other animogenetisers and started inputting code, before calmly walking into the chamber and closing the door behind her.

Seconds later, he walked out, male again. But not human by a long shot.

Four pairs of long, feathery wings, coloured a burning red on the primary feathers and deep black on the secondary feathers, extended from his back. Frills of golden-red feathers protruded from the back of his head, which was suddenly adorned with protruding fox ears and several horns. Like his sister, or brother, his eyes had black sclera, green irises and oddly large black pupils. His hands had morphed into taloned, phoenix-like claws, and light grey fur covered his underbelly while strong, three-digeted feet were at the end of his legs, which were covered in soft-looking crimson feathers. Two long, scaly draconic tails the same colour as his new underbelly's fur with lion-like tufts on the end that matched his leg-feathers.

Technow smiled through his new beak that perfectly matched his sister/brother's. "And that wraps that up. Now, since I'm right here, I don't think I really need an author's note. Anyway, I basically wrote this as a sort of apology for taking so long with updating anything. I have a lot going on at home, and I've been swamped in writer's block for weeks. So, wish me luck with that! Peace!"

"Wait, you're gonna leave me and Gearbolt the opposite gender?" Ala asked, as they had just woken up. "Gearbolt doesn't look like he's complaining. And relax, I'm sure it'll wear off by the next author's note," Technow reassured him, gesturing to Gearbolt. The lightning dragon was rubbing himself and randomly emitting squeals of pleasure. "Yeah, yeah, everyone loves becoming a girl but hates becoming a guy. Quit stereotyping, bro!" Ala hotly complained.

Technow pouted. "What about peace don't you under -"


End file.
